Performance Enhancement in MicroStation CONNECT Edition Update 14 - VBA Improvements

MicroStation implements Microsoft's Visual Basic for Applications (VBA). MicroStation VBA has extensions to VBA that allow interaction to the design file elements and settings, thus making it easy for users to navigate within MicroStation. In this blog, you will be able to see a sustainable difference in the load time and the step-in time.

The test data has been accumulated based on machines with multiple processors and an average of the same has been drawn to run the study. MicroStation CONNECT Edition Update 14 has shown substantial improvement in the numbers compared to Update 13.

Following are the specifications that were used for the test.

Content

Description

Windows OS

Windows 10 Enterprise

Processor

Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU E5-1660 v3 @ 3.00GHz, 3001 Mhz (Megahertz), 8 Core(s), 16 Logical Processor(s)

RAM

64 GB

Page File Size

9.50 GB

Graphic Card

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980

 

We have made use of both MicroStation CONNECT Edition Update 13 and Update 14 respectively.

Chart Content: : The chart below represents the time required to load VBA macros in Update 13 and Update 14. The number of functions against each dataset is mentioned for better comprehension of the graph.

No. of procedures

U13

U14

Dataset 1 (127 functions)

35

4

Dataset 2 (215 functions)

100

7

Dataset 3 (163 functions)           

40

4

Graph Content

These tests have been conducted multiple times and the average loading time was considered to obtain the graph below. The datasets used for the tests help in gauging the performance. The objective of this study is to help our users understand the difference in the time required to load the VBA properties in MicroStation CONNECT Edition Update 13 and Update 14.

  • X Axis: Dataset
  • Y Axis: Time (In Seconds)

This graph helps in understanding the time taken to load the Visual Basics for Application in MicroStation CONNECT Edition Update 13 and Update 14.

Several sample VBA macros are supplied with the product. For information about developing your own macros, see the MicroStation VBA Help (MicroStationVBA.chm) located in MicroStation's program directory. You can also refer to sample VBA macros located in \Default\Macros\Examples\ folder in MicroStation's program directory.

If you want us to test any specific datasets that you are working with or wish to suggest scenarios that we can test for similar performance study, please feel free to comment or connect with us.

If you’re interested in speaking with a Bentley expert about making the move to MicroStation CONNECT Edition, please complete this form to have someone contact you to provide advice and assistance.

Thank you for reading.